We present the next Foundation article, which goes into detail describing the greatest threat to face man in his ongoing saga.

Great Enemy: The term “Great Enemy” is the name given to a multitude of species of creatures native to another reality, which launched an invasion of our own reality in AD 4006. Dozens, if not hundreds, of species were observed and recorded during the Judgment War, ranging in size and stature from small animals to titanic creatures the size of small planetoids.

Many of these species appear in the form of vicious and feral predators, but many of them take a more insidious appearance, often resembling demonic creatures of ancient legend, hence why many refer to the creatures as demons. Again, these creatures can range from diminutive to gigantic in size.

In addition to their own native species, the presence of the Great Enemy seems to have a warping effect on creatures native to our own universe. It was reported on countless occasions of local wildlife becoming increasingly aggressive during invasions by the Great Enemy, and often even beginning to mutate into even more vicious forms of life. In more extreme cases, such as during prolonged conflict, or after the Solar Alliance re-took a world which had fallen years before, the mutated creatures would bear little resemblance to their original forms. The exact reasons and cause for these mutating effects is unknown, but it is theorized many of the more feral races of the Great Enemy were once docile wildlife as well, but now are deadly predators from centuries of exposure.

In terms of technology, it has been noted the Great Enemy relies almost entirely on biological or magical constructs to traverse great distances. In space, their ships resemble bizarre fusions of flesh and steel, arteries and muscle intertwined with circuits and machine parts. Despite capturing a number of vessels during the Judgment War, the Solar Alliance was unable to discover how such a union of biology and technology is possible.

On the surface of a world, the various races largely rely on manual travel, often giving the more mobile forces of the Solar Alliance a better chance to maneuver in reaction, however the numbers of the Great Enemy are far greater than anything the Alliance could ever muster. Thus, even if trailing elements of an advancing horde of monsters could be picked off, it would have little effect on stopping the entire swarm.

Many of the more powerful creatures, usually ones of demonic stature, also appeared capable of utilizing powerful teleportation magic, an ability which humanity was almost entirely unable to master. This helped the Great Enemy to negate their lack of terrestrial vehicles, as the demon lords leading their armies could open portals from one location to another, or even between the two realities.

Fortunately for the Solar Alliance, the main portals used to allow the interstellar fleets of the Great Enemy to cross the dimensional border were not powered by demons, but instead by a complex series of specially crafted planetoids, arranged in a complex pattern across the entire galaxy, which focused their energy into a single point that breached into our reality. When the Solar Alliance was able to destroy the central nexus world, it destroyed the arrangement, and the shockwaves of energy destroyed or dislocated hundreds of worlds in the pattern, likely preventing the Great Enemy from re-opening a portal of that magnitude for several millennia or more.

However, the demon lords of the Great Enemy retained their ability to open smaller portals, through which regular monsters could emerge, often in their hundreds.  These demon lords lacked the power to open the portals from their own universe, however, they could only open them from our side.

Thus, if a demon lord was defeated, his or her ability to summon more monsters was destroyed with them, and they could only be re-summoned by another demon lord in our universe, or through various actions by humans, whether deliberate or not (for example, when the extreme debauchery of Saniel reached such a fevered pitch the lust-lord Lucifon was able to come to Terranis and wreak havoc in AF 184).

While the lesser races of the Great Enemy find death permanent, it was discovered the more powerful demon lords, if defeated in our universe, would merely be banished back to their own reality, where they would require years, decades, or even centuries to re-gather their strength and manifest in physical form again. The only way to completely destroy the lords, it seems, is to destroy them in their own reality. As most of the Judgment War was fought in our own reality, though, the Solar Alliance had little opportunity to perform this en masse.

Little communication has ever been made with the Great Enemy, and thus their true motivations remain unknown. It is clear their greatest desire seems to be the destruction of our universe, and the corruption of all life within it. Whether this is a cultural motivation, some sort of elaborate survival instinct, or something else remains unknown.

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